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What if I masturbate (edge) or watch porn without orgasm?

Submitted by admin on Fri, 12/03/2010 - 18:55

Some men attempting the rebooting process believe that as long as they avoid ejaculation, they are successfully rebooting. This bizarre logic leads to a practice common to Internet porn users, called edging. This is masturbating up to the edge of orgasm, then stopping to cool things down, then revving up again. Three common versions of edging:

Watching porn without masturbating

Masturbating while viewing porn, but not ejaculating

Masturbating without porn and without ejaculating

Since a reboot is defined as no porn or porn substitutes 1 & 2 make no sense. Edging while viewing porn (or fantasizing about porn) is far worse than simply having an orgasm and getting it over with. Why is that? It all comes down to dopamine.

Dopamine levels which are higher than levels attained through natural means (drugs, for example)

Moderate dopamine levels that remain elevated for long periods

Combo of 1 & 2

If you are edging to porn you are combining naturally high dopamine levels of masturbation with the dopamine raising abilities of 1) exciting, novel visuals 2) searching the net for porn 3) finding surprising or shocking genres. Edging can keep dopamine levels elevated for hours, and train the brain to require constant visual stimulation, rapid-fire novelty, clicking from scene to scene, and your own hand. None of this matches real sex.

High dopamine tells the reward circuit that "This activity is really, really important, and you should do it again and again.” Forget the possibility of addiction-related brain changes. Chronically high dopamine is conditioning your sexual arousal to everything associated Internet porn use. You are now training for the wrong sport. It's like spending your time hitting golf balls in order to become great basketball player.

Worse than training for the wrong sport, you may be taking yourself out of the game all together. Dopamine is odd. It really shoots up when something is better than expected, but drops when expectations are not met. Rewiring your sexuality to Internet porn means you unconsciously expect to be a voyeur controlling your dopamine with a mouse. When real sex doesn't match porn, dopamine plummets - along with your excitement and erections.

What about edging without using porn? Depends on your goals I guess. Keep in mind that YBOP is about Internet porn, not masturbation (hello nofap/reddit). Is it similar to simply staying close to the edge with a partner? Not exactly, because you are wiring your sexual response to your own hand. Having sex means you are wiring your sexual response to another person. This may be significant to visitors who are are dealing with sexual dysfunctions.

It's important to realize that sexual stimulation is by far the highest level of dopamine naturally produced. Dopamine is at its peak when on the verge of orgasming (edging). In the pre-Internet days, guys would usually masturbate, orgasm and be done with it - it might take 10 minutes or so. At orgasm, prolactin rises, which drops dopamine to baseline levels and inhibits its release. That normally spells some relief.

Placing your foot on the dopamine gas, without ever hitting the brake (prolactin) results in a continuous state of cravings without satisfaction. This practice of edging calls to mind the earliest experiments on the reward circuitry of the brain in which animals would stimulate themselves over and over, braving electrical shocks and ignoring willing mates.

In the end, chronically high levels of dopamine (in conjunction with a specific stimulus) are the trigger for addiction, as over-stimulation of the reward circuit leads to the accumulation of DeltaFosB, activation of genes, and specific brain changes. As the sustained molecular switch for addiction, DeltaFosB initiates both behavioral and chemical addictions. Yet one of its evolutionary purposes is sexual conditioning. It rewires the reward circuit to sexual cues in the environment and makes "sex" even more enticing. If your sexual environment is Internet porn, that's what your reward circuit expects....and craves.

However, one of it's main evolutionary function

One guy did a long-term experiment - no masturbation without porn/edging versus no porn/no edging:

2 years ago I did my first no-fap challenge, just to see if I could do it, and got an enormous burst of energy from it. For 2 years I have been trying to replicate that feeling, and never succeeded. During these 2 years, each nofap trial I did was just to try to achieve that level of energy.

My theory was that it was linked to not ejaculating, and testosterone and such. So I did nofap, but still looked at pictures of pretty girls, or porn, or edged...anything I could to boost my T-levels, without ejaculating...but without results. This time, I decided to do nofap, not for the energy, but because I was again tired of my daily PMO routine - and I would stick with it, in hard mode, even without superpowers.

The result: I am totally energized now. My conclusion: For me, the "superpowers" seem not related to not ejaculating, or ejaculating less...but to not exposing myself to Porn, endless lists of bikini-babes, edging, fantasizing, or even touching myself. No Idea how it works, but I guess it's related to something like this: (repost from another thread) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jX2btaDOBK8

In short: if you want to feel "superpowers": no porn, no pictures, no edging, no touching - go hard-mode for a few weeks.

By the way, many who end up with porn-induced ED have a history of edging to porn. As one guy said,

Is edging bad?

Yes, in fact it's worse. The reason is simple: instead of achieving orgasm and ending it, you train your brain to be bathing in chemicals for hours. It's the worst thing you can do, bar none. The worst. If you began and realise what you are doing in time, stop or rush to the end. Whatever you do, don't keep the pace. Most of us weren't addicted to PMO, but rather to PEO.

If you have chronic porn-induced ED, it's unlikely that ejaculation was the cause your ED - it was years of porn use. Internet porn is the stimulus that alters the brain, and, in some users, causes sexual dysfunction. Remember, today's porn isn't just addictive because it leads to the pay-off of orgasm; it's addictive because users can employ it to raise dopamine continuously in their brain's primitive reward circuitry. In fact, we know of one man who developed ED by just watching Internet porn. His schedule was to watch porn every day, but to masturbate only only once every ten days.

What happens when you eliminate masturbation but fall back into a bit of porn:

Hi guys, just a little update here. I've been over at nofap and have managed to not fap since January 3rd. For the first month of nofap I looked at no porn at all. The improvements I was were unreal. More confidence, deeper voice, bigger dick (no joke). The second month in I started looking at bikini pics and softcore playboy like pictures. This still seemed ok but I started noticing that I didn't want to go out of the house as much, and social anxiety started to increase again, just from bikini pics, what the fuck. I started to dive a little deeper last week and went to an old favorite porn site where I watched about 10 minutes of video. The dopamine rush was unreal. Heart pounding, shakiness, but I didn't fap. The past week after watching that shit has been a disaster. Watching Netflix all day, not working out, blah. So anyway here I am, pornfree 5 days, nofap 90 something. No more porn for me, its not the jerking off, its the porn. Free yourself.

As one "chronic masturbator" described:

I find that the sexual gratification of masturbation aided by pornography far exceeds pleasures of copulation (or other practices) with a partner. I have reason to believe that this conclusion is widespread among the sub-population of self-identified chronic masturbators. I am an active participant in several masturbation-focused Internet groups, and moderator of one. Masturbators frequently report a strong preference for masturbatory practices, even when continuing in an active relationship with sexual partners. Many go so far as to abandon partner sex even while the partner remains available and willing.

Far from just “rubbing off,” chronic masturbators generally engage in a practice we call “edging”: bringing ourselves to the brink of orgasm repeatedly, without ejaculation. We can sustain extremely high levels of sexual arousal literally for hours, and freely explore our most intimate and personal sexual fantasies. These gratifications might be possible with a highly compatible and supportive partner, but I think most partners either tire of the activity or diverge into their own sexual fantasies long before the chronic masturbator is fully satiated. So edging-masturbation provides arousal difficult to obtain otherwise. The potentially addictive nature of edging should be obvious. It is highly significant to hear chronic masturbators openly acknowledge their addiction and at the same time express willingness and desire to become “more addicted.”

Your addict brain wants porn, so it will rationalize all sorts of scenarios, and watching without orgasming is one of its favorites. Since ejaculation is not the addiction, or the cause of ED, rationalizing porn use is potentially harmful. (Read "What if I recondition my brain by watching porn without masturbating?" below this page.) Your post-viewing neurochemical hangover may not be as severe as when you orgasm, but watching porn weakens your self-control brain pathways and strengthens your addiction neural pathways—wiring your arousal ever more tightly to Internet porn's extreme stimulation. Advice from two guys:

I learned many things during my relapses, such as even a small, minor edge is dangerous...not on that day, but the next day the urge is slightly stronger and by the 3rd day unbearable. So for now no touching myself. I am also now more in control of my fantasies that were getting me back into edging. I now switch thoughts from those persons as soon as they come into my head.

No matter how innocent the image may be, in my book looking at vids/pics and then quickly turning them off is given a rating of 'high risk for relapse.' The acts of searching, looking and touching lead to strong urges for the ultimate rush which develops itself into a form of tunnel vision. This tunnel vision, in my experience, is characterized by a complete shut down of the 'new/logical brain.' The 'old/primitive brain' assumes dominance. Goals, consequences, and reasoning just aren't there, and its extremely difficult to not give in. Do yourself a favor and get away from your computer and occupy your time with something productive. Don't tease the lion, or it'll get you one of these days :-).

No porn addict successfully leaves this addiction behind by mixing edging with 'just watching.' Here are some guys' discoveries:

A good urologist I consulted years ago, told me that edging is so bad because the semen returns and might "crystallize" in our prostate and that is why the pain and the blue balls, he told me that he was not accepted in the urology association because he said that masturbation can be the cause of many problems in the prostate, the other doctors told him that if men masturbate more frequently they will have more clients. Be careful, dude!!!!!! Btwm this doctor also told me that 10 years ago 90% of his patients were over 60 and now he is helping people as young as 16, many youngers are going to consult him. He blamed masturbation, porn and hormones, he has a treatment of needles to inject vital nutrients in the nerves of the penis, it is like viagra but even better, you feel like a bull.

Important: Edging is not the right way to recover. Be careful with that! It's not only playing with matches. Just the touching and dopamine rushes to your brain are enough to slow recovery. I didn't quite get this at first, so now I've added a no edging counter - and it's already 4 days. Generally, I feel much calmer, much quieter on the inside. My morning erections are back. I feel slight discomfort - blue-balls - but it goes away quickly. What does help when urges arise is touching myself in a different, non-erotic way, cold showers or just dripping water softly on my penis and balls, breathing, and distraction (doing something different).

"The Zeigarnik Effect is the tendency to experience intrusive thoughts about an objective that was once pursued and left incomplete (Baumeister & Bushman, 2008, pg. 122). The automatic system signals the conscious mind, which may be focused on new goals, that a previous activity was left incomplete. It seems to be human nature to finish what we start and, if it is not finished, we experience dissonance."

Best way to avoid fapping is to avoid starting.

Close the browser. Open your eyes if you start to fantasize. Turn off the TV. Get out of bed. Zip it up.

I started Nofap, and although it was difficult at first I dug my heels in and things gradually improved. I did my first 90 days and then I decided to reset as I had initially allowed edging and I wanted to do it properly. FYI it's much easier if you don't edge.

I stopped watching porn on June 8, 2011 and haven't seen a naked girl on my screen (in any form) since then. However, a crucial mistake that I was making, up until 32 days ago, was EDGING. I saw very little, to no, progress for the first 6 months or so, and never completely contributed this to edging (partly out of denial, and partly because it was second nature and something I didn't think about very much when it was happening). So, for the past 30 days, I've been seeing massive progress. FINALLY! Here are my experiences up until now, as well as some tips and advice:

1st attempt 74 days with edging, 2nd attempt 39 days with edging, 3rd attempt 15 days with edging and 4th attempt 5 days with edging.

AND Now:

11 days of nofap without edging(not even looked at my penis or edged for second, had 1st night fall of my life on 4th day, i am 25 Y.O) and i am amazed how my mind and body reacting socially and my stare is lethal for women they all are getting attracted the way i look. Feeling good and confident in difficult time i am going through right now it really helps a lot , but some times you get depress due to external factors around you it gives you courage to fight back.

I believe this is ultimate freedom, if you surpass your sexual urge.

EDIT :- i quit watching porn around month back

I'm actually studying neuroscience in graduate school, and one of the first things you'll learn about the reward system is that the dopamine actually floods the system in anticipation of the reward - not after the reward itself. So from a neurobiological perspective, edging for 15 minutes is much worse than just rubbing one out in a few minutes. If you think about it honestly, what you're addicted to is the PM, not the O.

BUT… I think its also crucial to recognize that just because you lose focus and start edging for a minutes, you shouldn't follow through because "well fuck it I'm already edging I might as well finish and start over". There is a HUGE amount to be gained from standing up to and resisting the urge even in those moments.

[For a couple of weeks prior, this man was complaining that he was compulsively playing with his genitals.]

Haven't touched my penis in a while. 5 weeks no M, 1 week no P. I feel soo mellow. In a good way. My OCD is gone. I think I had restless leg syndrome. I've stopped moving my legs all the time as well. I was unknowingly doing it to touch my penis. I am so chill right now. Everything is slowing down for me, and I'm more calm when I talk to people. I am sooooooooooooooooooo relaxed, and I don't need a substance to do it. Man, I'm on top of the world. I WANNA CALL my x-girl and tell her I still love her...haha...I do. We broke up cuz of porn. My passion is gone when I'm on it, but when I'm not, I am on top of the world. I'm still fearing relapse, cuz I just do. Always will. But this rebooting experience is finally paying off.

Last night I experimented by watching porn without touching myself (I'm rebooting right now). I felt as though I was in control. I was competently doing other tasks while watching, which is impossible for me when I'm working up to orgasm. However, this morning I feel some brain fog (my indicator that my brain chemistry is not right). It's not as bad as when I'd MO to P, but it's there. And I expect the next few days (at least) to be hell, as I have these fresh images to deal with. I will not be doing this again. For what it's worth.

[from Reddit/NoFap] Why you must not edge -"What you're describing is called edging. I PROMISE YOU if you continue to edge you WILL relapse there are no ifs, ands, or buts about it.

TRUST ME this is as simple as 1+1=2. I stopped going on /b/ for that very reason. You have to cut out pornographic images in general, even perusing that busty girl's Facebook could be dangerous. Here's how it starts, "Man, I'm doing well at nofap. Already at 60 days?!?!? I don't even wanna fap anymore...hmmm...wow Stephanie is looking hot in that two piece...what can I say I just like looking at hot women. There's nothing in nofap against looking at hot women...Let me check out /s/ just to see what's goin' on, it's not like I'm gonna fap or anything. I just wanna see some tits...Wow, these girls are so hot. Let me check out /gif/ it's not like I'm streaming porn or anything, they're just gifs...Wow, I'm so horny right now. I'm sure it won't matter if I just touch myself a little bit...it's not like I'm gonna full on fap and orgasm of anything. These girls are so fucking hot. I know a girl on xnxx that looks just like her...It won't matter if I check her out. I'm not gonna finish, I just wanna see her and that vid is sick...OMG, I can't fucking help myself, she's so hot. I DON'T EVEN GIVE A FUCK ANYMORE. orgasm Wow...woooowwwww..wwwoooooowwww....90 days down the FUCKING drain...omfg.

I might as well keep going now since I already broke the streak...what the fuck ever...fuck." And that my friend is how it goes. If you allow yourself to walk the tightrope you will definitely lose your balance. DON'T DO IT!" --Esbietoo

This slippery slope is something that all of us need to watch out for! The key problem is that people think that they can "cheat" the system simply by edging themselves but denying the orgasm. However, the dopamine rush associated with browsing porn is still going to keep the addiction going... and as the floor falls out from under you as you get closer and closer to the point of no return while edging, following through and orgasming will simply be inevitable. Hence, I insist that everyone refrain from even edging! This mission is [no porn/masturbation], not NoCum. Deal with it.

I tried an experiment a couple months ago wherein I watched a lot of porn and edged without orgasm for 21 days. When I finally released it was without porn. For the next couple weeks I had TERRIBLE withdrawal. So there's a lesson for you.

I confirmed it. Edging is Worse than masturbating. It's like an unfinished business. I was edging today. Before, I felt calm. After about an hour edging, I felt turmoil inside me. I feel the energy like, there's a storm inside my body. Compared to the cool, calm ocean feeling I had before edging, it's damn worse. Took me a couple of hours to feel relatively calm again. Learned my lesson. :(

So I did nofap before for 63 days but would edge and even look at porn once in awhile. I didn't see to many results after the first week as my brain got used to not cumming and just replaced PMO with PM and I was basically back to my old self. I decided to try again without looking at any porn or edging at all. It was so much harder at first but SO much more rewarding. The pride I felt for doing it was great and I had confidence and energy boosts and all that jazz. And then after a week something happened. I started getting attention from so many girls. Girls I am friends with say there is something difference about me, they are flirtier and two have even tried to hook up with me. I can see girls staring at me, smiling at me and checking me out.

Be careful when edging or fantasising - anything that causes you to get a pre-load ready for launch. I have seen a few posts re: NoFappers feeling pressure/pain in prostate from edging sessions. The two streaks I recently held had me experiencing sharp shooting pains after releasing giant loads (most probably due to prostate shrinking back to normal size). I had to break my two week streak just now because my prostate felt highly sensitive which felt quite unnatural.

I am confident that the fantasising and edging was causing a lot of semen to build up that was ready to be ejaculated. The edging and fantasising over time was causing several loads to build up which could not naturally be dispersed through wet dreams etc.

Long-term, you're likely to find more satisfaction from an occasional ejaculation without porn or porn fantasy, than you are from looking at porn, with or without climax. Paradoxically, this is because Internet porn is hyperstimulating. It is like nothing your ancestors ever confronted (unless they owned a very kinky harem). Because excessive dopamine can numb the brain, the stimulation of Internet porn can increase dissatisfaction—even though "looking" always gives you a rush. The evolutionary reason for this seemingly paradoxical result is explained in Has Evolution Trained Our Brains to Gorge on Food and Sex?

Orgasm itself can bring on a desire to binge too, especially if it's really intense. In contrast, a gentle, sensual session of self-love doesn't seem to kick off the same cycle (and is good practice for your love life ;-) ).

Be aware that, at first, you may not find a single climax without porn satisfying, or find masturbation without porn stimulating enough to climax. This is because your brain is not feeling rewards normally. More than one recovering user has commented that once he stopped viewing porn, the urge to masturbate eased a lot, because "without porn, masturbation was not that interesting." No need to force yourself to climax. Be patient.

The good news is that a few months without any porn will make sex of any kind much more satisfying.

Comments

I've been in a rebooting process for about 26 days, with 2 single episodes of MO (NO porn) days 18 and 25. I know these can make my recovery time longer and I'm willing to take actions to stop MO from now on, however, I wanted to know if these two episodes have thrown overboard the whole 26 days effort or are relative minor relapses. By the way, right now I'm experiencing some effects of the hangover, but I can recognize this state now (I wasn't capacble to recognize it before).

I've been PMOing almost 2-3 times every day in the last 25 years and I realize now that I've been always lived in a hangover state (dulled, not focused, like disoriented, depressed), After these 26 days, I've been capable to be more energized, focused, clear minded, and less a procrastinator.

This PMO thing has being runining my life and I didn't know until now. I have a wife and I love her but our sexual life has been sh**. We are temporary living apart and she's not aware what I've been going through, I expect discuss this with her when we hopefully come back together. I really feel very bad 'cause is like been cheating on her for the last 5 years but I swear I wasn't capable to resist the urges and recognize how this was affecting my life. I wish she could forgive me.

I wish we knew more about the effects of masturbation and orgasm on the rebootiing process. It seems that guys who are really strict about masturbation recover faster.

It is very clear that you have NOT thrown the 26 days overboard. Both physiologically (masturbation's effects on your brain) and psychologically (how you perceive it), it makes more sense to compare this process to dieting. Do not think about rebooting as someone in AA would think about abstinence from alcohol.
It's more like you went off your diet and slowed your weight loss, but you have already lost 10 pounds.

Specifically, your brain has changed since you stopped porn, and every time you choose not to view porn you are strengthening positive pathways, and weakening addiction pathways. In other words, it's not Monopoly, where you have to go to jail and not pass GO. Some advice: Do not to enter into black-and-white, all-or-none thinking when recovering from this, or any, addiction. It's very counterproductive.

Celebrate your accomplishment so far. Also, see what you have learned from the experience. Notice how orgasm may be affecting your perception. I think it affects us guys more as we get older.

It's hard to believe that Internet porn can have such powerful consequences - until you are off it for a while.

When appropriate, have your wife watch the 6 part, "Your Brain on Porn" series. It has helped wives understand how addicting internet porn can be, and can create a place of understanding and forgiveness.

Ok so im 15 yes i know im a little young and i did do the test and i do have porn related e.d ... I stoped PMO for four months never watches porn never masturbated in those four months... 4 years i was an addict but on to the question... Ok so today i wanted to try something ... So layed down relaxed and cleared my mind and tried to foucs on achieving an erection... So then i rubbed my self and started masturbating... The i got some oil and continued... I was focusing on feeling and erection no fantasy no thoughts of porn nothing... Then i did that for about 20-30 mins tops avoiding orgasm... Next thing you know i just said let me release... Now i feel bad so did i relapse... Only time i orgasmed through my recovery was wet dreams this was the first time in four months i have masturbated.. no fantasy no porn just feeling ...

I used to suffer from pmo for years until I met my current g/f. When I started going out with her last yr, I was lucky to find this forum so I stopped pmo. I went to bed with her 5 weeks after I stopped pmo and suffered in the bedroom.
Slowly but surely, cos I persisted to resist pmo, I was progressively having longer and more amazing sex with her with harder erections.

The problem in the last few weeks is that I haven't seen her for about a month so I have recently been edging back on to porn without Mast'ing. I had broken my greater than 120 days of resisting looking at porn. Although I have not mast'ed, I have been gradually looking at more and more porn.

Luckily, I found this forum today to help steer me away from that slippery slope again. I will be seeing my girlfriend next week, so time will tell whether I relapsed myself into flatline again.

In my teens, I managed to quit smoking, I managed to drastically cut down on drinking, but porn strangely enough, I've found the most difficult thing to quit. Especially when I see those really sexy girls in skimpy little bikinis and short skirts. Oops, best not talk about them, otherwise I'll tempt myself back onto that slippery slope. Gotta be strong. Good everyone.....

Hello Mr. Wilson. You surely heard of the new erotic bestseller the "Shades Of Grey".

I want to read it, but as I wanna stay away from PMOing, and especially away from the "edging", I wantad to ask you if just reading the "Shades Of Grey" bestseller would be the same as watching P and edging?

YourBrainOnPorn.com does not have a "porn recovery program." We simply pass along suggestions by men who have recovered from Internet porn addiction and porn-induced ED. If you are looking for a set of rules you will not find them - other than no "artificial" sexual stimulation. By artificial I mean pixels, audio and literature. If its not real life - just say no.

Porn addiction is the need for artificial as a replacement for real life. Rebooting is about rewiring your brain to reality.

There are a lot of good books out there, why are you choosing this book? Answer - your addict brain is searching for any stimulation it can get...and it can rationalize this as "OK".

This is the first time I have attempted to stop PMO in 15 years. I am on day 20, but I was wondering if watching P without MO is bad since it technically is not edging and I am not touching myself. I realize avoiding PMO altogether is the fastest way to recovery, but will watching P with MO really retard my recovery?

I just wanted to share my experience. Without pornography (22 days now) I have literally no desire to masturbate. I am often horny. When I am horny I want to watch porn. Since I am nofapping I will not watch porn, but it never occurs to me to beat off without porn. I don't even know if I could!

Sometimes when I go to bed I will get hard from some mental fantasy, but I have no desire to masturbate. I'll just be hard and be fantasizing. It is weird, even when I used to watch porn I didn't want to masturbate, masturbation was totally secondary, I just wanted to keep watching porn as long as I could. I was usually trying to avoid orgasming just because I knew once that happened the shame would set in and I would stop watching porn. This would go on for hours with me "nursing" a hardon, trying to stimulate it just enough to stay interested but not enough to cum, so I could just keep watching all day / all night.

This is what porn addiction looks like, and it's crazy. Not masturbating is the easy part, not giving in and watching porn is the really really hard part.

Im on 5 days without full blown masturbation(I cant avoid touching it before stopping myself) and zero porn; which is tied for most ever since I've started masturbating to orgasm. I can say from experience that Edging is what really pushed me over the edge of wanting to masturbate all of the time. As of now it seems I didnt have a problem with ED, but now I'm realizing how much time I was spending masturbating. I could go at it for 2-3 hours; masturbating for a little bit, and then spending my "cool down" looking for more literotica or videos and repeating forever. Those started out giving me the best orgasm; and then it just turned into producing the most sperm. Even after some 2-3 hour sessions I would instantly feel like I could have went longer(I dont have a desire to look at porn other than to masturbate to orgasm) so I started trying 2 hours sometime during the day and then another 2 before I would go to sleep. After finding this site and realizing some of the things mentioned on this site are some of the things I do have I actually made an effort to stop... And of course when I told myself to stop for a while I had the worse 3 days self control wise. I could go to sleep just fine, etc; but I felt like my mind kept trying to talk me into "Jacking off just one last time" before I take a break.

I get that the majority of people struggling with this are dudes. And some men-focused language is expected. But how hard would it be to write "Some people attempting the rebooting process" so that women aren't automatically rejected from the first sentence?

We write about what we know, which has only been men. This all started on my wife's site, and for years it was only men posting comments and rebooting accounts. We have yet to have a rebooting account by a woman - and I have have searched high and low to find one. In other words it's been only men.

I'm currently 9 days into a no PMO streak, but recently I've noticed that I tend to edge to porn on my smartphone just before going to bed. Although I'm watching less porn than I did before the reboot, I now realize that it's not going to benefit me in the long run.

This article has helped me see that I'm actually continuing the problem and slowing down my reboot. Now I'm going to focus my efforts on abstaining from porn, as opposed to ejaculation!

Currently, I feel that edging has been really detrimental to my progress in rewiring. In researching some other articles, I also found out about karezza. The description of edging you provide seems very similar to the description of karezza (except with another person instead of self). Both practices involve stimulation without reaching orgasm. Is karezza also harmful, then, because it raises dopamine levels really high without subsequent orgasmic release?

It's far more relaxing because you don't try to go near "the edge." The goal is to stay "warm" not hot."

The neurochemical cocktail of masturbation appears to be different than the neurochemical cocktail of intercourse, perhaps because "warm touch" has been shown to increase oxytocin and reduce stress, especially in men.

The best way to find out how it affects you is to try it for a while. The second best way is to read a number of self-reports by guys who have:

Hii. I am a 30 year old married guy based in India, doing PMO since i was13 yr old. I have completed 60 days of NoFap without masturbation. Felt really good but last night i got nos. of the hookers based in Phillipines from Craigslist and had a chat on Whatsapp, asked for their nude pics and rubbed my genitals almost till the edge of ejaculation. Now today the brain fog has gone up by 50% and the confidence has gone down by 60%. I have committed a grave mistake. Just want to know when i can be back to normal. Pls say that i will be ok again within 2-3 days. Pls console me guys. I need help. I dont want to spend the rest of my life miserably in a state of this wretched social anxiety.

People do things that slow their progress all the time during recovery. You're certainly not the first to edge or rationalize browsing other stimuli because "it's not exactly porn," even though the stimuli have the same effects on the brain.

This experience is valuable because you now see what you need to avoid. Your clarity and confidence will return if you are consistent. Read these:

From the past few weeks, my mind and body were as calm as an ocean... I was feeling very happy and content. Was able to make a clear and firm eye-contact with the people around me.. But this last act of edging has severely affected my brain. Tell me what has actually happened (chemically / neurologically) inside my brain while edging and typically after how many days one gets normal after a severe edging session???

Got the surprise of my life to see my first morning wood... Without any fantasy in mind (i clearly remember), the "thing" was erect up to an unbelievable length (i think the maximum it could achieve)... Though there is a feeling of an elevated level of anxiety but the same is under control... Its so good to feel that now I am having this anxiety thing under my control and same is slowly dimishing... Learnt a lesson... will completely abstain from that anything which provokes any sexual fantasy in one way or other. Thanks

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The Demise of Guys: Phillip Zimbardo

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